History & Background

A History of Family and Community Education

NOTE: The following article was published in July 2006 in the Danville
Register & Bee
as part of a feature celebrating the college's 40-year
anniversary.

When Danville resident Joe Clay found himself in a dead-end job in the early
90s, he knew it was time to take action. Thus, when his father, Jerry
Clay, suggested that they enroll together in an air-conditioning and
refrigeration program at DCC, he was up for the challenge.

Although this would be Joe’s first time as a DCC student, he was no stranger to
the opportunities the college offers. His father had graduated from its
industrial electricity and industrial electronics programs two decades earlier.
Today the elder Clay credits his career success at Lorillard, from which he
retired two years ago after 43 years of service, with the outstanding career
training he received at DCC. Jerry’s Lorillard career started as an
instrumentation technician and ended in Lorillard’s prestigious research and
development division.

“When I was growing up, in our
family the name ‘DCC’ was synonymous with success,” Joe recalls. “It seems
like my father was always taking one course or another at DCC. We were
taught that in order to succeed, a person needed good training, and the best
place to get that training was DCC.”

Vice President of DCC’s Workforce
Services Dr. Max Glass says that the Clay’s story is typical. “That’s why
we take pride in being a community college. We serve the community,
and that usually equates to multiple generations of family,” he noted.

Glass, who just four years
ago was named the Virginia Community College System’s Workforce
Services Educator of the Year, left a faculty position at Virginia
Tech to launch DCC’s workforce training efforts in 1969 – only then it
was called the “Continuing Education” program.

“We were referred to as the
‘evening college,’” Glass recalls. “We offered basic college
transfer courses as well as training in electricity, electronics, police
science, and child care, for example.”

The college’s workforce
training program has come a long way since then.

Early efforts included
creation of customized training programs for businesses such as
Westinghouse (ABB at the time), Dan River Mills, and The Goodyear Tire
and Rubber Company. The hiring of Don Campbell in the early 1970s
to serve as Assistant Director of Continuing Education opened the door
to creation of various non-credit training programs as well.

Business was booming as local
companies sought more and more opportunities to help keep their employees
abreast of the latest technologies. In response, DCC created the Center
for Business, Industry, and Government (C-BIG) in 1987, with Dr. Ed. White (now
Dean of DCC’s Business & Engineering Technologies Division) serving as the first
director; followed by James Parrish; then Dr. Betty Jo Foster (who went on to
eventually serve as DCC’s Vice President of Academic & Student Services); and
finally Jeff Arnold (who now serves as DCC’s Director of Business, Industry, and
Economic Assistance).

In 1999, DCC created a counterpart
organization known as the Regional Center for Advanced Technology & Training
(RCATT), originally headed by Dr. Jim Johnson and then Scott Barnes (who now
serves as DCC’s Vice President of Financial & Administrative Services). In
October 2005, the college opened the doors on its new
RCATT facility, designed to house the ever-growing high-tech programs in
the Workforce Services group.

Today C-BIG and RCATT have merged
to form the complete Workforce Services picture, combining the strengths and
synergy of resources from both organizations to carry on the DCC tradition of
providing effective workforce training programs through partnerships with
business and industry (these partnerships of which have led to DCC receiving
seven Exemplary Partnerships with Business & Industry awards over the
years from the Virginia Department of Education for partnerships with the
Memorial Hospital; the City of Danville; the Riddle Center; Dan River Mills; The
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company; Huber Engineered Woods; and Yorktowne
Cabinetry).

While the college enjoys its
industry partnerships, it is still proud that a great deal of its focus remains
on the community and on families.

Indeed, in the Clay’s case, it was
not just father and son who attended DCC, but also Joe Clay’s wife Kristen (who
now uses her DCC-acquired computer skills in her current career), as well as
Joe’s mother, who studied cosmetology.

And Joe? After taking
the original air conditioning and refrigeration classes with his father,
he went on to earn a degree in DCC’s Industrial Maintenance program in
1994 and then a diploma from the college’s machining program in 1995,
graduating cum laude from both programs. Just last spring he
completed programmable logic controller training in DCC’s Industrial
Maintenance Lab.

He credits his DCC education
with helping him land a lucrative position at AMP in Greensboro in the
mid 90s, noting that back then there were few high-paying technical jobs
in the Danville area.

But just as times have
changed in DCC’s Workforce Services program, the times are changing in
Danville’s business community, too. As local economic developers
focus on bringing high-tech jobs to the region, employees like Joe are
becoming a hot commodity. In late June, Joe landed a job as a mold
technician with Essel Propack, one of the region’s new companies whose
operations demand well-trained technical experts.

Kerry Dodds, Essel Propack
molding plant manager, commented, “We’re happy to have Joe. He’s
coming in at a higher-level because of his education at DCC.”

Joe agrees. “I feel
like I’ve come full circle,” he said. “I got my training here in
Danville, I’m raising my family here in Danville, and now I have a
career that, hopefully, I can keep throughout my life here in Danville.
I thank my dad all the time for talking me into going back to school at
DCC.”

1008 South Main St., Danville, VA 24541 | 434.797.2222 | 434.688.0136 (vp) | FAX: 434.797.8541 | Toll-Free: 1.800.560.4291Danville Community College promotes and maintains educational and employment opportunities without regard to race, color, sex, ethnicity, religion, gender, age (except when age is a bona fide occupational qualification), disability, national origin, or other non-merit factors. Danville Community College prohibits sexual harassment including sexual violence.